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Building rapport with customers

Building rapport is a necessity in forming strong, healthy relationships. This is no different from the relationships you develop with your customers.

Customers need to trust you to do business with you. Establishing rapport from early on is one of the best ways to build this trust and confidence.

Consider the following tips to build rapport with customers:

Demonstrate interest
Focusing on the customer’s needs is imperative. If it is your first interaction with a customer, don’t be afraid to break the ice with some small talk. Ask questions and actively listen to them. Find common links and build on their ideas. This helps them to feel comfortable and open up in conversation.

Avoid ‘salesy’ talk
If your aim is to simply make a sale, you have already started off wrong. Be genuine and honest in your conversations to avoid coming across as insincere. Ignoring your customer’s objections with more ‘sales’ talk won’t get you any closer to closing in on a lead. Instead, reframe objections by asking more questions to understand their reasoning and providing more information and so forth.

Mirror them
Mirroring the customer is a great way to build instant rapport. If you are meeting face-to-face, mirror their body language such as their facial expression, smiling, posture, gestures and so on. When conversing, paraphrase what the customer said to clarify your understanding.